


here in tokyo, there in rome

by nacreousdew (crystallizedcherry)



Series: it's all about us wherever we are [3]
Category: SHINee, f(x)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 07:37:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16363661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallizedcherry/pseuds/nacreousdew
Summary: Taemin knows she is no longer the same old Jinri.





	here in tokyo, there in rome

Taemin knows she is no longer the same old Jinri. Like a rose, that bud is now officially blooms and the ethereal innocent cuteness back then alters to a more adult-like beauty, more eternal than just an ethereal. He’s like that too, no longer a small garden where simple stories lingering in the air, he’s developed into a secret garden with long thick walls around, ivy conceals them and the door.

Yet, he is the garden while she is the flower, they are still connected. She is the Sulli—Jinri—who slips a congratulatory message inside his lunch box provided by the staff whenever she stops by in the company’s building. He still says hello to her whenever they are in the same place, and sometimes he’s glad, he’s still breathing the same air with her.

He, the new Lee Taemin, knows how to thank his ‘fellow childhood friends-scratch-trainees’, and also, the girl with the same alma mater as he was, from the same industry as he is and stays this long. And she, the new Choi Jinri, understands him like no other. They were the young ones to be taken care of back then, now they are set free and he’s doing the piercing wherever he wants and she poses however she wants.

_Now it’s time to pass the torch_ , he says as he’s leaving to Tokyo for his concert, and she stays in Seoul like it’s her home forever (no, she still loves Busan, though), but she _laughs_.

_We’re getting older_ , she replies, between the noises of an open concert of her favorite indie rock band she is trying to get herself out of for his call only, _but the youngsters now aren’t like us._ She recalls the time when everything was different, when she was constantly bombarded by the hate comments and some of his fans didn’t like her, he says she doesn’t have to talk about it anymore, but she insists. _It was what shapes us_. People underestimate him, yet he makes his way this far. _Good luck for you and please blow my kiss to Tokyo,_ she says.

Between his songs in the concert, he remembers her smile and how blooming she is, then a pale-pink bud and now a fierce-fiery red rose that challenges the world. At the same time, she flies to Rome for a photo shoot, and she still brings along a Seoul postcard with his handwriting on the back, ‘to my little Jinri, please always smile and always stand tall like you know how to’.

Memories stay, time passes by, old smiles linger, like doves freed from their cage, they will find a different path, maybe, but they were cradled in the same garden before.

He takes a deep breath in, ending his first day of concert with a hit of a long note, reaching the sky. She smiles in front of the camera with all her sugary-sweet aura, giving all her best.

_We’ll be okay_ , he whispers to the fresh open air of Japan.

_I’m sure_ , she’s breathing it out in a romantic Rome night.


End file.
